The "Middle East and Terrorism" Blog was created in order to supply information about the implication of Arab countries and Iran in terrorism all over the world. Most of the articles in the blog are the result of objective scientific research or articles written by senior journalists.

From the Ethics of the Fathers: "He [Rabbi Tarfon] used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it."

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Friday, January 1, 2016

Why Dani Dayan’s appointment is a test case.

Originally published by the Jerusalem Post.Today Israel’s bilateral relations with Brazil are moving toward a
full-blown crisis. If the government doesn’t address the causes of the
crisis, going forward it will find itself unable to competently advance
Israel’s interests in the international community.
Brazil has the ninth largest economy in the world and is a rapidly growing market for Israeli exports.
Israel’s bilateral trade with Brazil expanded nearly 60 percent between
2009 and 2013. Israeli exports comprise two-thirds of the overall
trade.
Economics isn’t the only reason that Brazil and Israel have important
joint interests. According to Alberto Nisman, the slain Argentinean
prosecutor who investigated the Iranian bombing of the AMIA Jewish
community center in Buenos Aires in 1994, Brazil serves as a major hub
for Iranian and Hezbollah activities in Latin America.
Given Brazil’s importance as a market and as a defense partner, Israel
needs a serious ambassador posted to Brasilia capable of advancing
relations. In Dani Dayan, Israel has such a representative.
Dayan is a native of Argentina. He knows Latin America better than career diplomats.
Dayan was an early hi-tech entrepreneur. He led his company, Elad
Systems for 23 years, building it from a small information technology
firm into a 500-employee company with an annual revenue stream of NIS100
million. Given his business background, Dayan’s ability to promote
Israeli-Brazilian trade is self-evident.
Dayan is a political pragmatist. When he served as the leader of the
Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, he made it his
goal to demonstrate to the wider public that the communities are an
integral part of Israel. As the council’s representative to the
international community, Dayan worked tirelessly to combat the
delegitimization of Israel as a whole and of the Israeli communities in
the areas. In a sphere where Israel has precious little to show for its
efforts, Dayan’s public diplomacy efforts stood out.
In light of this, when Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu appointed
Dayan to serve as Israel’s ambassador to Brazil in August, the
appointment was not seen as controversial. Rather it was widely viewed
as a sign that Netanyahu is keen to expand Israel’s bilateral ties with
Brazil and more generally, that Israel is interested in seriously
advancing its ties to Latin America.
This apparently was bad news for the EU- and US-financed radical Left.
For many years radical leftists have made no effort to hide their
interest in maintaining and expanding Israel’s international and
economic weakness. As they see it, the stronger Israel is, the less
vulnerable it will be to foreign pressure to make further concessions to
the PLO.
And so, after the government approved Dayan’s appointment, fringe
leftists associated with EU- and US-funded political NGOs set out to
scuttle the appointment.
In September, three former ambassadors associated with the EU- and
US-funded radical Left lobbied the Brazilian government through the
Brazilian embassy in Tel Aviv, asking it to reject Dayan’s appointment.
Alon Liel is the former director-general of the Foreign Ministry. Today
he serves on the board of three political NGOs – Sikkuy, Ir Amim and
B’Tselem – that are all funded by European governments.
Sikkuy and B’Tselem are also funded by the US government.
Eli Barnavi, who is a member of the post-Zionist Meretz party and Peace
Now, was one of the founders of the European Jewish pro-Palestinian
lobby JCall. He is the former director of the European Museum in
Brussels, and a member of the scientific committee of the museum.
Barnavi served as ambassador to Paris during the Barak government.
Ilan Baruch, long the most outspoken radical leftist in the foreign
ministry, served in various positions in the peace talks with the PLO
and went on to serve as ambassador to the Philippines and South Africa.
Baruch left the Foreign Ministry under a cloud of controversy in 2011
when he denounced the government and said that he could not represent
it.
Baruch serves as foreign policy adviser to Zehava Galon, the head of the post-Zionist Meretz Party.
He hosts a radio show on the Swedish and Norwegian government-funded
All for Peace radio station, which is run through Ramallah. Baruch is
also associated with the EU-supported think tank Mitviim.
In September, Liel, Barnavi and Baruch met with the Brazilian
ambassador and urged his government to refuse to accept Dayan’s
appointment. As they saw it, accepting his posting to Brasilia would be
tantamount to supporting Israel’s control over Judea, Samaria and
Jerusalem.
Their action transformed Dayan’s appointment from an Israeli statement
of commitment to expanding bilateral ties with Brazil into a political
hot potato in Brazil’s domestic politics. Ever since the men intervened,
the Brazilian government has refused to accept Dayan’s appointment. As a
result, Israel’s bilateral relations with the largest country in Latin
America are now on the verge of a full-blown crisis.
For three months the government tried to use quiet diplomacy to
convince Brazil to accept Dayan’s appointment. But last week the
government concluded that a public clash is unavoidable. As Dayan noted
in a media interview Saturday night, the issue at hand is far greater
than whether he will get to move into the ambassador’s residence in
Brasilia or not.
If the move initiated by Liel, Baruch and Barnavi succeeds, then that
will mean that there is an effective diplomatic boycott of all
non-leftist Israelis. Any Israeli considering a diplomatic career or
posting from now on will need to avoid making any statement in support
of Israeli power beyond the 1949 armistice lines – that is, any
statement in support of the policies of the elected government of Israel
– lest they find themselves in Dayan’s shoes, with the host government
unwilling to approve their postings.
The success of these three otherwise marginal actors – who all work
with EU-funded organizations – in undermining Israel’s ability to carry
out diplomacy shows just how critical it is for the Knesset to pass
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked’s new NGO bill, and if possible expand
its scope when it is discussed in the Knesset Law Committee.
Shaked’s bill requires political NGOs that receive more than half of
their funding from foreign governments to identify themselves as foreign
agents. This is important because, as the Dayan appointment shows
clearly, in their work these groups – and their members – seek to weaken
Israeli democracy by subverting the policies of the elected government.
But Dayan’s still unaccepted appointment to Brazil also shows that Shaked’s bill is not sufficiently strong.
Not only should the Knesset’s Law Committee expand its scope by
including the bill’s restrictions on all political NGOs that receive
foreign governmental funding.
It should also deny non-profit status from all foreign government-funded political groups.
At the same time, the government itself must get serious about public
diplomacy. A recent report produced by the Knesset Information Center
for Law Committee Chairman MK Nissim Slomiansky from the Bayit Yehudi
Party showed that Israel’s public diplomacy efforts are in a state of
chaos. While the government budgeted some 500 million shekels to fight
the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, almost none has been
used. The Prime Minister’s Office has used only 28 percent of its public
diplomacy budget.
The Foreign Ministry has earmarked no special funds to fighting BDS.
Responsibility for Israel’s public diplomacy efforts are dispersed among
a half-dozen ministries with competing interests.
Due in large part to this stunning governmental failure to competently
defend the country, aside from the heroic work of a few privately funded
Zionist NGOs forced to punch above their weight, the ground is clear
for agents of subversion to undermine the government.
As the stalled Dayan appointment shows, these groups exploit
governmental weaknesses and incompetence to launch effective boycotts
not only against Israeli products, but against Israeli citizens.
Dani Dayan’s appointment is a test case. Shaked’s bill is also a test
case. If the government stands its ground on Dayan’s stationing to
Brasilia, and if the Knesset passes Shaked’s bill as written or a
stronger version of it, then Israel will have taken its first steps
towards ensuring that it will not be undermined by fringe elements of
its society funded by hostile foreign governments. If the government
fails in either of these undertakings, then it can expect acts of
diplomatic, political and legal subversion to proliferate and will see
its ability to advance the policies it was elected to implement
disappear.Caroline Glick is the Director of the David Horowitz Freedom Center's Israel Security
Project and the Senior Contributing Editor of The Jerusalem Post. For
more information on Ms. Glick's work, visit carolineglick.com. Source: http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/261294/our-world-dani-dayan-and-challenge-israeli-caroline-glick Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.